Summer with the Marauders
by Weasley-and-Proud
Summary: One prank goes too far and makes Lily question her feelings towards the boy she had sworn to hate forever. But what happens when Lily and her two friends end up sharing a villa with none other than James Potter and the Marauders? Read to find out! R&R!
1. Chapter 1

"_Aguamenti"_

Lily Evans gasped and jumped up out of her four poster bed. Disorientated, she looked around, confused, before her eyes met with the girl stood at the end of the bed.

"Carla!" she screamed shrilly at her friend. "Why did you do that?" Freezing-cold water was dripping down her face and her pyjamas were soaked.

"You needed to get up, we're gonna be late for breakfast," Carla replied solemnly, storing her wand away in her school robes.

"Are you telling me that you tried to drown me for the sake of _food_?" Lily yelled again, water droplets flying all around her as she moved.

"Yep, now hurry up and get ready," she said.

"What about Mel? Doesn't she get soaked? Or do you just want to annoy _me_?" the redhead snapped.

"Oh, she's got something far better planned for her," Carla smirked.

Then, as if it was timed to work with her words, high pitched scream came from behind the drawn curtains around Mel's bed, followed by, "CARLA JOANNE TAYLOR! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY HAIR?"

"I tweaked it a little bit," Carla grinned. "Personally, I like it quite a lot."

"Well I don't!" Mel screeched. The drapes pulled back to reveal a blue haired furious looking Melanie Davids. She was holding a small compact mirror in her hand and her features were carved into a scowl that could rival Lily's – and that was saying something.

"Come here, Mel. I'll fix it for you," Lily sighed, giving Carla a look that could kill.

"Thanks Lils, but what happened to you? Did you just take an early morning swim in the Black Lake?" Mel asked.

"If you want de-Smurfing, I suggest you shut up," Lily warned drying herself off via magic.

"What's a Smurf?" Carla injected curiously.

"Go away Carla," Mel whined, getting off of her bed and walking over to Lily, allowing her to transfigure her hair back to its normal rich mahogany appearance.

Whilst they were busy, Carla disappeared into the bathroom. Lily then turned to Mel, who nodded in silent agreement. So she flicked her wand in Carla's direction.

There was a startled squeak from the bathroom followed by a deafening yell of horror, "AHHH! I look _OLD_!" The door banged open and a wrinkled, grey-haired Carla stormed in, she threw herself down at Lily's feet; much to her complete surprise. "Please, Lily, I'm sorry! Just turn me back, please!"

Lily grinned evilly and raised an eyebrow at her friend. It was a well-known fact between them that Carla had a severe paranoia of ageing prematurely, so this was like her worst nightmare. But eventually Lily took pity on her and changed her back.

Carla stroked her blonde hair protectively then all three girls burst into laughter. It was just another everyday morning in the 6th year Gryffindor girls' dorm…Only it wasn't. It was the very last day of term and classes before three glorious months of summer holiday.

All three girls had chipped in and between them; they had managed to book the entire holiday in a villa in sunny Orlando. No adults were coming along with them, so it really was going to be an amazing trip as a break from all of the stress of the thought of being 7th years when they came back to Hogwarts after. With their scary N.E.W.T.S ahead of them, it was agreed that they defiantly needed the trip as a chance to really unwind and relax.

Lily was the one in most danger of exploding. The promise of her final year at Hogwarts was really getting to her. _What if she failed all of her classes? Would she be made Head Girl? Would the attacks on all of the Muggles and__ Muggleborn's stop? _Merlin, that girl knew how to get herself in a flap!

Carla just simply wanted a holiday and the chance of getting a good tan. But Mel wanted: to go for a swim in the morning in the sunshine, to go to many theme parks, lie about on sandy beaches and, finally, snag herself a hot boyfriend.

Carla had enthusiastically agreed with the boyfriend idea, and between them, they had tried to devise a plan, consisting of hours of background research on the best area's where the cutest guys were most likely to hang out. It would be safe to say that they were both going to have a boyfriend before they returned to England.

However, Lily wasn't too bothered on getting herself a boyfriend. All she cared about was managing not to have a mental breakdown due to the amounting stress of her home life.

Her Sister was engaged to be married to a whale-of-a-man, and her parents were going insane with all of the planning. Petunia had banned Lily from everything to do with her wedding and future life. So that was really why Lily had agreed so easily with the holiday, it was keeping her far, far away from her sister and soon-to-be husband; and that was the way they both wanted it. And in any case, Lily would rather snog Potter than be at that circus.

The girls got ready, laughing and lightly teasing each other – but nothing more than some good-natured banter between really close friends – and then they made their way down out of the dorm and towards the Great Hall for breakfast.

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They passed Peeves in the hallway, who was throwing toilet rolls at students who were trying to pass him and into the Grounds via the Entrance Hall. Lily cast a shield charm over her and her friends as they walked by into the Great Hall, just as a precaution.

As soon as they stepped through the doors, Lily immediately knew something was wrong. It was quiet, far too quiet. One quick glance over the Gryffindor table confirmed her suspicions.

The Marauders were absent, and that always meant that they were up to something; that _something,_ never being anything good. They were troublemakers and – in Lily's opinion – a pain in the arse.

OK, so maybe Remus wasn't that bad, but Potter and Black were the devil in disguise. Too bad that they were disguised as, good-looking and _sometimes_ funny guys. The world works in mysterious and yet cruel ways. Peter was another thing altogether; Lily had never really liked the small boy. He just seemed like a tag-along who tried to get a place in Potter and Black's spotlight. Yet somehow he struck her as somewhat untrustworthy. But Remus had told her that he was OK, and he was his friend. Not hers, so it wasn't her concern.

But what was her concern was the fact that all four of them were missing, and probably planning something big for the last day of term before school finished. _Whoopee_, she thought, in bitter sarcasm. _This is going to be a good day._ And then…_**BANG!**_

The Whole of the Great Hall was screaming and cheering – bar the teachers – as balls of multi-coloured confetti came showering down on everyone. But Lily knew better than to believe that this was just harmless glitter. Knowing the Marauders, there had to be a more sinister meaning behind it.

At that moment the Marauders came into the hall. Potter and Black swagger up to the Gryffindor table – in the height of their undeserved glory, Peter following them looking like an excited puppy and Remus bringing up the rear, rolling his eyes at the applause and his friends' antics.

Grinning, Potter sauntered over to Lily and fell down into the seat next to her, slinging his arm casually over her shoulders.

Lily responded by folding it back off of her and dropping it to his side, otherwise she ignored him completely, and turned back to her breakfast, only to find it covered in glitter.

"Good morning, Evans!" he beamed. "The glitter looks lovely on you; it really brings out the green in your eyes."

Lily finally turned to face him properly. "All right, Potter. What's the deal with the confetti?" she demanded, signalling to her sleeve. She tried dusting it off, but the little pieces of glitter wouldn't move.

Immediately he smirks at her gleefully, before shrugging, "Just a little charm. No biggie."

"Yes…but how do you get it off?" she scowled untrustingly.

"You have to have kissed, or kiss now, one of the Marauders," he explains, positively beaming now, knowing fair well what she will have to do to get the stuff off.

Horrified, Lily turned to Carla and Mel, both of whom are completely glitter free. In fact, pretty much the whole Hall is.

"The charm doesn't work on teachers or the Slytherin's. I'd rather not have to kiss any of them," he winked mischievously. "Also it only works on the female population, and they have to be student's the same age or older than us. Neither of us wanted to lock lips with any little first years."

"But, unless I am very much mistaken, that only leaves Katie Woods and me," she says, folding her arms grumpily across her chest.

"Actually…just you," he replied, pointing to Black and Katie who seemed to be eating each other.

Lily picked up a bread roll and threw it at them. "Not while people are eating!" she snapped.

Black simply grinned and stood up, bringing Katie with him, and they ran out of the Hall, probably to go snog in a broom cupboard somewhere.

"And anyway…" Potter continued. "How come you know so much about the Marauders' dating histories?" he asked.

"Because it's really all the girls talk and gossip about. _Did you see Potter with that girl today? I heard that she has an older brother who plays Quidditch at an international level!_ Or: _Oh my God! Yesterday, I saw Potter get pulled into a broom cupboard by this Hufflepuff slag__! She's a right whore! He could do so much better. _And even more frequently, I hear things like: _Do you think if I died my hair ginger he'd notice me more? _And that is generally when they whole flock of girls would turn to glare pointedly at me with daggers coming from their eyes," she said, giving him a pointed look that plainly said 'see what you make me have to endure?'

But James simply laughed and replied, "Really? That's what you girls talk about?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Lily sighed. She looked down at her long Red (or ginger depending on how you saw it) hair, and made a noise resembling a quiet wail. "If I kiss you, will this bloody glitter fall out?" she asked, angry about his stupid prank.

"Of course," he smiled, his face breaking out into a wide grin.

"Fine then, come on," she snapped, standing up and finishing her pumpkin juice in one big gulp.

"Where are we going, Lilyflower?" he pressed, also standing.

"Somewhere where nobody is ever, _ever_ going to see or find out," she snarled grabbing him by his robes and dragging him furiously out of the Hall.

Once they'd rounded the corner from the Great Hall, Potter took her hand and pulled her into a room that she'd never seen before.

"Where are we?" she demanded, feeling slightly funny at the sensation of having Potter's large hand holding hers. As soon as she realised that she hadn't let go yet, she dropped his hand, blushing delicately; if he noticed, he didn't say anything.

"The Room of Requirement," he replied.

"Oh," was the oh-so genius response from Lily. She had heard of the Room of Requirement before, so it wasn't too much of a shock. It was only the reason that they were actually there, that worried her.

There was no furniture in the room, just a fluffy gold carpet and Gryffindor-red walls. Lily resisted the temptation just to kick off her shoes and lie down on the floor and go to sleep; it really looked that soft and inviting.

"What kind of kiss does this have to be?" Lily asked, her nerves properly taking over for the first time.

Suddenly Potter looked very guilty and he ran his hand through his hair – a habit that Lily found immensely irritating usually, but now it just struck her as kind of…_cute_…

"How bad?" she asked, beginning to feel slightly sick.

"Bear in mind that this was all Sirius's idea!" he pleaded, trying desperately to avoid the question she'd hauled at him.

"_How bad_," she replied warningly.

"Tongues," he murmured quietly, his eyes on the carpet, he shuffled his feet uncomfortably under her glare.

Lily, loudly, released a breath of air; it actually sounded more like a hiss.

"Lily, I'm really sorry," he apologised, warily looking up just encase she decided to take a swing at him.

However she didn't begin to pound every inch of his body that she could reach, she didn't even start to yell at him either. She just stood there, trying not to break down and begin to hyperventilate.

"Lily, I-"

"No, James. I can't go round covered in confetti," she interrupted, before taking a deep breath and stepping towards him. Nervously, she put a hand in his hair and yanked him down to her height, pressing her lips to his before she had chance to talk herself out of it.

After a few second of standing there in an awkward, nervous lip-lock, James cautiously put his arms around her, just hoping that she wasn't going to thump him.

Surprisingly enough, Lily leaned in to his embrace, knowing far well that the longer they spent just stood there with their lips merely touching, the longer she would have to tolerate kissing him. The faster they progressed, the sooner she could leave and continue with her day as normal. Not that he was a _bad_ kisser…_oh no_…

Lily tilted her head to the side slightly and James did the same, so that they could both get easier access.

James took this as an opportunity to pull her closer with one hand, which he then rested gently on her hip; and with his other hand he cupped her cheek gently, tracing his thumb down the side of her face.

Lily shivered involuntarily at his feather-light touch, and tangled her fingers further into his unruly hair. It was unbelievably soft, not at all the texture she would have imagined. She used her other hand to snake it around to the upper part of his back and pull herself closer towards him, therefore altering the pressure of the kiss to a more determined, strong-willed action.

After a few more minutes, they reached the stage they had been climbing to reach. James trailed his tongue gently over Lily's bottom lip, asking for entrance. She gasped in surprise at the movement, but parted her lips, willingly allowing him to slip his tongue inside her mouth and kiss her properly.

_OK, Lily, you can stop now…I said, you can stop now…Lily? Lily! Stop it!_

Eventually, her head cleared enough to pull herself away from him, putting some well needed distance between them. If the gap hadn't been there she didn't know whether she'd have been able to refrain from launching herself back at him, and attacking his soft lips with her own.

James stared at her, a dumbfound expression on his face. His hair was even more messy than normal because of the fact that Lily had been running her hands through it; his robes were all wrinkled and creased; and his glasses were only just hanging onto his face.

Lily's hair was all mused too – only it was far more notable on her, seen as her hair was always sleek and perfectly straight – and her lips were all swollen and red; her eyes were open wide, shocking James into silence as he gazed, disbelievingly, into her bright emerald almond-shaped orbs.

Well, one thing was for sure: the glitter had certainly gone.

They continued looking at each other for a second, before Lily picked up her bag and ran from the room without looking back. _What had just happened?_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hiya readers!**_

_**Welcome to the second chapter of 'Summer with the Marauders'! **_

_**First of all I wanted to thank all of the people who favourited the first chapter, and a special thanks goes out to: **_**dragontrainer16****, **_**for reviewing and favouriting both **_**this**_** story and my other Lily/James chaptered fic: A LoveHate Relationship (thank you!). And **_**AmazingWingedGirl**_**, you're the best, Rein! And I love you! (Not as much as I love James, but I'm sure you can understand and live with that!**____**) **_

_**OK, well nothing overly important happens during this chapter, I guess you could say that it's just a filler. But I had to put it in, it helps you get a better understanding of my OC's and their relationship with Lily. There is no James in this chapter (AWWW!) but don't worry! He's definitely going to be in the next one!**_

_**So, what are you waiting for? Go on, and start reading! And don't forget to review!**_

For the second time that week, Lily woke up with a mouthful of water and a yell of, "CARLA!"

Her friend simply laughed and disappeared into the bathroom. _3…2…1…_

"CARLA!" Mel screeched, emerging with bright pink hair. "Why pink? You know I hate pink!"

"I thought it looked good," came Carla's reply from behind the door.

"Well I don't!" 

"Will you two shut up? It's far too early to be yelling, even for you! At least give me chance to wake up properly first!" Lily complained, performing the sufficient drying charm on her bed.

"Didn't a cold shower do that for you?" Carla grinned, re-emerging from the safety of the bathroom, plonking herself down on her camp bed that had been set up in Mel's bedroom.

The girls had been staying at Mel's house for the last two days. Lily and Carla had only gone home briefly to pack for the summer, before Apparating to their friends' house.

Lily had literally gone up to her room, shrunk her whole wardrobe of clothes and fitted it easily, along with her shoes, jewellery, books and limited amount of make-up into her suitcase. Once she had packed anything she might need, she had headed downstairs to say goodbye to her family.

Both her parent's had been insanely busy with last minute wedding plans, so they only just managed a quick hug and wishes for a good summer. Then her Mother and Sister went to the florist; while her Father tried to organize the marquee for the reception after the actual ceremony.

Happy about being able to escape, she then went straight to Mel's house. She arrived there about the same time as Carla did, and after a series of high-pitched squeals of excitement, they started finalising the minor details of their holiday.

They already knew that their villa was split into two separate living areas (which could also be opened up to make one whole area if desired). They would have to share things like the pool and sunroof with their neighbours.

According to the details that the company had sent them, the other half of their holiday home was going to be occupied – all summer – by three guys.

Carla had cackled evilly when they discovered this. "I bet they're going to be hot as hell!" she had grinned.

"That is if they're not all middle-aged and overweight perverts," Mel had pointed out, receiving herself a firm smack and orange hair, courtesy of Carla's talent for transfiguring peoples' appearance at the drop of a hat.

But all of the talk about guys had made Lily remember that awful time with James on the last day of term in the Room of Requirement. It was soo embarrassing to think that she had been won over so easily and willingly succumbed into the kiss.

After she had fled the room, leaving him there – probably laughing at how well his plan had ended up – she had run to the closest girls' bathroom and cried.

She had avoided James like the plague since then, and had refused to tell either of her friends why she was absent almost all morning, and when she did come back, her eyes were all red and bloodshot; because it was not very believable that Lily Evans could have been crying. Lily Evans _never_ cried.

Once Lily had turned Mel's hair back from Pink to brown, and Carla had been transfigured back from a toad (Mel was in soo much trouble because of that), they each showered and got ready for their trip and the long plane ride ahead of them.

Out of the three, Lily was the only one to have been on a plane before, and both Mel and Carla were very nervous.

Mel's parents dropped them off at the airport (Mel's Dad had just got his licence, and was very excited about it), and they went to baggage and checked in. Then they made their way into the departure lounge.

Carla had been slightly apprehensive about going through the scanners at first, and Lily had to convince her that they weren't going to hurt her or do anything bad; but finally they were all sat in the chairs among a large amount of Muggles waiting to go on their summer holidays.

Their plane had already been delayed by two hours, so now they had four and a half minimum hours to kill – thanks to Mel's Dad's crazy driving.

Lily would have been perfectly happy to just sit there and read for the whole time, but her friends had other ideas.

They were OK for the first ten minutes, before Carla announced that she was bored. Mel had then heartedly agreed, banging her head on the wall behind her, feeling the need to signify her boredom to Lily, who was still busy reading her book.

"What do you expect me to do about the fact that you are bored?" Lily asked, sighing, not lifting her eyes from the book.

"Lillly! Can we go exploring? Pleeeease!" Carla begged, making her eyes as big as dinner plates, and whimpering like an injured animal.

"I'm not stopping the two of you going. You can go, I'll stay here," he said calmly. In hindsight that was probably not a very good suggestion, letting two wizarding children loose in a Muggle airport had its own stack of problems waiting to happen.

"Noooo! You need to come or you'll just sit here forever and rot away behind that book!" Mel insisted.

"_So_? What's wrong with that?" Lily demanded, finally looking up from the page she'd been reading previously, to give her friends a withering stare.

"It's booooooring!" Carla whined.

"Everything's boring to you, Carly," Lily pointed out truthfully.

"Well…not _everything_," she winked, raising one eyebrow suggestively, gaining a playful swat from Mel.

"Oh, yes, so I'm told. When were you going to tell me about your little make-out session with one of the Marauders?" Lily asked, challengingly.

For a second Carla looked shocked, then confused, suspicious and then finally guilt won the battle and took over her facial expression. "Lil, how did you find out about that?"

"No, the question is: 'Which one was it?'" she replied forcefully.

"Er…"

"Or was it more than one?"

"No! OK, it was Black. I'm sorry, and I'm well aware that it was completely and utterly stupid! But it was after one of their parties. I was slightly drunk- and you know how I get when Im drunk. He'd had a bit too much as well, so when I threw myself at him he didn't push me away. I don't know what made me go for him; he was just closest I guess. Anyway, we found an empty broom cupboard, and…well, we, um…._shed a few layers_. But then Potter found us—"

"Wait! _Potter_ found you? And how come that tale's not been circling around the school ever since?" Lily interrupted, baffled.

"I've been wondering that myself. But I think that he just wanted to spare Sirius trouble. Then there's also the fact that you'd almost definitely hate him for spreading gossip about me. He's really not that bad, you know."

"How on earth did he manage to find you? There must be hundreds of broom cupboards around the castle!" Mel wondered out loud.

"I guess that he just knows which ones' that Sirius uses often," Carla shrugged, trying to make it look like it was no big deal, and that she really didn't care less. But Lily could see through her mask and couldn't help but feel unnecessarily guilty for bringing it up.

"Well, that or you must have been making a hell of a lot of noise!" Mel giggled under her breath.

"What about you, Mel? Which one were you making out with?" Lily asked.

"Remus," she sighed in denial, "It was the same party. I guess we were both just feeling lonely. I don't regret it, but I'm not proud of it either. It's been awkward between us since."

"Oh," Lily said confusedly. "I didn't know that Remus was your type."

"How could he not be? He's sweet, kind, good-looking and he isn't just in it for the making out. He actually cares," Mel replied, smiling slightly to herself, wearing a dreamy expression.

"Aww! It sounds like someone has a little crush!" Carla grinned.

"Better than a quick shag in a broom cupboard with a guy I supposedly hate," she shot back defensively.

"Touché," she smirked. "But, Lily, how did you know those things? You'd gone up to bed with a splitting headache because of the volume of the music."

"I…er…It's, um…" she stuttered nervously. She really should have seen this coming, no way were Carla and Mel going to let her get away with not telling them.

"Come on, spill! You made us tell," Carla ordered.

"Fine! You know the glitter explosion on the last day?" she checked.

"Yeah, the one the Marauders planned? That was soo cool! And none of the glitter even stuck to me either! They're so clever!" Mel squeaked.

"No, they're just crafty," Lily snarled.

"What's happened now?" Carla asked tiredly, it was almost in a patronising tone.

"That glitter was charmed, that's what!" she retorted angrily.

"OK, how?" 

"It was charmed so that the glitter only stuck to you if you'd not been tonguing with a Marauder." 

"Shit!" Mel exclaimed, finally understanding what was annoying Lily so much. "Who told you that?"

"Potter did," she growled.

"And, let me guess, he was rather smug about how few girls were completely covered," Carla guessed.

"Yep, little sod!"

"Wait…how did _you_ get the glitter off?" Carla wondered after a seconds thought. "When I saw you after breakfast you had none left on you. In fact, the last time I saw you before then was you dragging Potter out…of…the…OH MY GOD!" she yelled, finally understanding. "You and him! Him and you! You…you…!"

"Yes," Lilly admitted rather reluctantly, blushing right down to the roots of her hair, and looking back at her book as a distraction.

"Was it good?" Carla pondered after the initial shock had had time to set in.

"What?" Lily demanded, looking up.

"How was he at snogging?" she questioned, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Carla! Ewww! Please!" she squealed in disgust at the thought, having to go through that once was bad enough.

"Oh, come _on_! Tell us!" Mel pleaded.

Lily just shook her head stubbornly, refusing to say anything more on the matter than she'd already told them.

"Why not?" she whined.

"I don't want to."

"But why?"

"It's private!"

"Ha! So you enjoyed it!"

"No! I never said that!"

"You didn't have to. It was shown on you face, plain for me to see."

"Shut up, Mel."

"Make me, _Lilyflower_."

"Do _not_ call me Lilyflower!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's what Potter calls me."

"So it's now what he moans out to you when you're—"

Mel wasn't given the opportunity to finish what she was saying because- thankful for being of age- Lily cast a subtle silencing charm on her to shut her up. Carla just sat there and howled with laughter at her friends.

"I'm going to go find the toilet," Lily told them before picking up her handbag and stalking off; Carla's loud laughter still echoing down the hall after her, all the while her head pounding: _I love my friends, but honestly, sometimes I __just want to strangle them…after Potter, that is. He's going first. And anyway, stop worrying, __ Lily! You don't have to see the guy until school starts again. You've got three whole weeks to relax and forget about him; don't let even the thought of him ruin your summer…_

_**Sooo what did ya think? What were the good bits/bad bits? Let me know, I love reviews! Let's try and reach ten by Christmas. That would be the best present **_____

_**Thank you for reading!**_

_**Xxxx**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiya everyone! Just a few things to say…**

**Firstly****, I just spotted a mistake in the last chapter, but I can't be bothered to go change it at the moment. It says near the end: **_**You've got three whole weeks to relax and forget about him. **_**Well what it's supposed to say is:**_** You've got three whole **__**months**__** to relax and forget about him.**___**Whoopsies! My bad, sorry!**

**Secondly****, I hope you have a happy New Year! **

**Thirdly****, enjoy the chapter!**

"Walk through the scanner, Sirius," Remus sighed tiredly, looking apologetically at the airport security guard watching the whole thing with an impatient expression on his face.

"No!" Sirius insisted adamantly, "What if it is a lethal brainwashing machine?"

"Padfoot," he said slowly. "Prongs and I have already gone through, and we're just fine. It's not a brainwashing machine."

"I knew letting him watch that film was gonna be bad for his sanity—well what's left of it, anyway," James muttered to himself, but just loud enough so that Sirius and Remus could hear him.

Remus turned to give James the 'Now is not the time' look that he was so famous for, before turning back to Sirius. "Come on! We're holding the line up!" he informed him, letting his eyes drift to the seemingly miles long queue waiting for Sirius to stop being such an idiot.

"But what if it _hurts my hair_?" Sirius said persistently, he wasn't going to go through that scanner. _What would the ladies do if I had no hair?_ Just the thought made him shudder.

"Look, Padfoot, I promise that it will not hurt your hair. I swear on my place as a Marauder," James told him firmly.

Sirius looked at his best-mate, came to the conclusion: _Prongs wouldn't lie to me_, and swaggered confidently through the scanner.

Remus threw his arms around in frustration; James had always been able to control Sirius better than he had.

"Moony, don't do that. People will think that you're weird," Sirius said casually, grabbing his backpack off of the floor where James had previously thrown it after it had passed through long before its owner had.

"You can talk!" Remus snapped irritably, hitching his own bag more securely over his shoulder so that it didn't slip down.

"Yes, I can. Well spotted! Honestly, Moony, and I thought you were supposed to be the intelligent one."

"I am!" Remus insisted, looking thoroughly scandalised.

"Well, if Moony's the intelligent one, I'm the handsome one; it's only fair," Sirius told James with a smirk. "You can be the big-headed one!"

Remus laughed and shook his head in disbelief, his friends truly were weird, but Sirius took weird to a whole new level; or as Sirius called it: 'Pure awesomeness!'

James glared at his two friends, grasped his bags tighter and walked off in a huff, no idea whatsoever where he was actually going in particular.

"Aww, come on Prongs! You've got to admit that was funny," Sirius chuckled, jogging to keep up with him. _Damn that boy could walk fast!_

But James wasn't listening, he was far too preoccupied by thoughts of a particular fiery redhead, and he was wearing the look that Sirius had christened the 'Lily look' back in fourth year.

That kiss had been completely amazing. It had felt so right to be with her. She was perfect. He adored every single thing about her, even the way that she could hate him with such a passion. But he was scared that she was angry with him— wait, no, scratch that…_he was sure_ she was furious with him, and that she didn't like that kiss as much as he had done.

He knew that it had been wrong to force her into something like that, it was a terrible idea. The next time she saw him, he was probably going to get an earful and a few hexes aimed at him, and that was if he was lucky! All it had done was give her an excuse to hate him even more, if such a thing were even possible.

He was so completely caught up in his thoughts that he wasn't really looking where he was going and he crashed right into somebody, sending them both flying.

"I'm really sorry," he apologised, pushing himself up off of the floor and extending a hand out to the poor girl that he had walked into.

She was a redhead, he noticed, causing him to internally flinch. _Would just the thought of her haunt him all summer? Would he see her wherever he turned?_

"Don't worry about it," the girl said, taking his offered hand for him to pull her up. A pair of bright green eyes stared right into James' hazel ones, and in surprise he let go of her hand, unfortunately though he had already lifted her half to her feet, so she hit the floor again with a thud. They just stared at each other speechless.

At that exact moment Remus and Sirius came around the corner, Remus walking briskly with Sirius complaining loudly about wanting an ice-cream, into his right ear. The pair dodged a great crowd of Muggles before Sirius skidded out and landed right in front of James and Lily. "Lilyflower!" he exclaimed in shock, before his face broke out into a wide grin.

"Hello, Lily," Remus smiled warmly, "Do you want a hand up?" he asked politely, noticing her position at once.

"Er…yes please Remus," Lily replied getting over the initial shock of seeing three quarters of the Marauders in a Muggle airport.

Remus held out his hands and carefully pulled her up off of the floor. He turned to give James and Sirius withering looks about their lack of chivalry whilst Lily wasn't looking and seemed to be checking her handbag to make sure she hadn't dropped anything important.

"Thank you," she smiled quickly, remembering her manners, looking at Remus once she'd double checked that nothing was missing like their boarding passes.

"That's alright," he replied, returning her smile—if anything—a little awkwardly.

Then they all just stood there in silence, not quite able to think of something relevant to say.

"Soooo…what are you doing here on this fine summers day, Evans?" Sirius asked after getting sick of the quiet.

"I'm going on holiday," she answered simply, a bit confused. _What __does he think I'm doing here? Stalking them?__!_

"Sweeet! Where are you going?" he pressed nosily.

"America…" she replied suspiciously.

"NO WAY! Where 'bouts in America?"

"Orlando—"

"Bloody hell!" he interrupted with a quick victory dance. "Godric must love you, Prongs! He is smiling down on you from the little Hogwarts in the sky!"

"Why?" Lily asked, her stomach churning in a very uncomfortable she had a feeling that she already knew what the answer was going to be, and it wasn't an overly pleasant thought.

"Because, dearest Lilyflower, that is exactly where us – devilishly handsome – Marauders are going! Although…I'm not so sure if I could call Moony devilishly handsome…he's obviously not as good looking as I am!" he announced, gaining himself a quick, firm, smack over the head from Remus.

Horror surfaced on Lily's face, her eyes widening to the size of dinner plates. _No! No, no, no, no! There obviously isn't a God if this is happening to me!_ She thought to herself.

"Are you going on holiday with your family, Lily?" Remus asked gently, noting her facial expression. "Because I though you said that your Sister was getting married in a few weeks. Surely you should all be at home preparing," he said logically.

"No, I'm um…I here on my own…with Carla and–"

"Wait! _The_ Carla? _Carla_ Taylor?" Sirius cried out, his eyes widening to the size that Lily's had been previously.

"The very same. And she told me the most _interesting_ story about a certain party that you threw after Gryffindor won the Quidditch cup. There was something to do with a cupboard mentioned – if I recall correctly," Lily said, scowling at him slightly.

This news, and the fact that Lily Evans was glaring at him, was enough to send Sirius a ghostly-pale colour. He looked right about ready to throw up. _How on earth does __Prongs__ handle this every time she __looks __at him!_ He exclaimed internally.

"Um, Padfoot? Are you alright?" James checked, finally getting over the fact that _the_ Lily Evans was stood in front of them and not _officially_ yelling at him.

"Yeah…" Sirius eventually managed to choke out weakly.

"Mel's here as well," Lily added after a second, moving her eyes onto Remus.

He paled considerably too at this fact and James just looked at the pair of them in confusion and a form of mild amusement.

Lily huffed at them before turning on her heels and starting to walk off back towards she'd last seen Carla and Mel. She's been just wandering around the few select shops here to try and clear her head…it hadn't worked.

"Oh! Wait up, Lily!" James called, running after her, leaving Sirius and Remus to gather their wits and regain their composure.

"What, Potter?" Lily demanded exasperatedly. Merlin, she was annoyed! She'd so been looking forwards to three non-Potter months to recover in time for school in September. And now she was possibly going to be stuck seeing far more of him than she'd like.

"Call me 'James'…but anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to apologise for the other day. It was very wrong of me to pull something like that and force you into it, I'm sorry," he said awkwardly, running his hand through his tousled hair, momentarily distracting Lily as she remembered what it had felt like to run her own hands through it_._

_I__t had been so soft…_she recalled_, _her breath catching in her throat as she pulled herself back to the present and away from the memory. She looked him in the eyes and saw nothing but utter honesty and embarrassment.

"It's OK," she finally sighed. "I guess I forgive you. Anyway, you didn't really take advantage like most others would have done in your place. Thank you for apologising though."

James' grin filled the whole of his face and he threw his arms around her and swung her around in a circle without any second thought. "Thank you, Lily!"

She couldn't help but giggle quietly and to blush as Muggles passing, gave them strange looks; James saw this to and let her go carefully, taking step backwards away from her to gain the distance between them again.

"I'm going to go back and find Carla and Mel now," she told him. "They're probably wondering where the hell I've gotten to."

"Can we come with you? It's just that, you seem to know where you're doing and where you're going. Us, on the other hand, well…We've already gotten lost multiple times. Although, I don't think Sirius ending up in the ladies toilets was such an accident on his behalf," James said thoughtfully, half to himself.

"Um…well, I don't know. I'm not so sure how Carla would feel if I brought you guys back when I supposedly only went to the toilet. And that was over an hour ago, if you catch my drift," Lily said slowly.

"Yeah…I can see how that would look with Sirius and his reputation," James replied, running his hand though his hair again, letting out a nervous chuckle.

"HEY!" cried Sirius, finally recovering from the shock. "You know I would never even think about touching Evans! Well, unless I was suicidal! You'd have me killed!"

"Padfoot, not right now," Remus sighed.

"Well, either way, I'm going back now," Lily said walking only a few steps before Sirius's arm was slung lazily over her shoulders as they moved their way through the crowds. Lily rolled her eyes and shrugged his arm off; she was already going to be in enough trouble as it was. Carla and Mel were going to kill her.

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"Lily! There you are!" Mel exclaimed. "We were so worried!" She then proceeded to launch herself at Lily and hug her ferociously. She then suddenly pulled away and looked at her in suspicion. "Where were you?"

"Um…I kinda got side-tracked," Lily replied shiftily pointing at the three teenage boys standing just behind her.

Mel just stared at each of them for about ten seconds each, her face completely blank and wiped of all emotion.

"Mel! Lily!" screamed Carla, sliding over to them. "Thank Merlin, I found you! You will _never_ guess who I swear I saw when I looked for you in the ladies bathrooms near the check-in desk…"

James turned to Sirius and whacked him upside the head, "You idiot!"

"Jaaames, not the hair! Pleeeease!" Sirius moaned pathetically.

Carla then caught sight of the Marauders, and all hell broke loose. "WHAT THE HELL!" she screeched furiously. "What on earth are _you_ doing here?" she snarled coming over to Sirius and poking him angrily on the chest.

"Going on holiday, just like you! Only Pete could come because his father suddenly got really ill, so he had to stay to help his Mum! Please, Carly! Don't hurt me! I swear we're just going away for the summer!"

"Using Muggle transport? Yeah right!"

"Honestly! We didn't even know you were here!"

"Sure," she snarled sarcastically. "Sure you'd pass an opportunity to stalk us!"

"Carla," Lily whispered nervously. "They didn't know. I just ran into James down the corridor—literally—and then Sirius and Remus found us."

"And you brought them here?" Carla yelled, turning her temper on Lily.

"Guys, people are staring," Mel mumbled, trying to hide behind her hair. She hated being stared at; she was so shy around strangers, yet amazingly outgoing around her friends; it was almost like you knew two different people at the same time.

"Carla Joanne Taylor, you do not want to get in a screaming fight with me," Lily warned, her emerald eyes flashing dangerously.

James Sirius and Remus all exchanged quick glances before taking a few steps backwards, this could turn pretty nasty. Just, _Lily__,_ yelling and screaming insults was bad enough, but Lily _and_ Carla screaming at _each other_. This was not going to be good.

"Oh, really! Don't I? How could you, Lily?" she yelled.

Mel, sensing an incoming disaster cast a quick disillusion charm over the six of them. So when the Muggles would look at them, they would only see six teenagers sat talking and laughing. She also cast a silencing charm, to try and block out the raised voices.

"How could I? HOW COULD I?" Lily roared furiously. "You are always the one bossing everyone around, trying to drown me and turning Mel's hair every colour of the rainbow! Whenever you don't get your own way you do something to make other people listen, whether or not it hurts anybody's feelings! You are selfish and you don't care about anybody else! You know, just for once, would it kill you to do something selfless, or refrain from retaliating when you don't get your own way?"

"Well you're one to talk! Miss: I'm-so-bloody-perfect-stuck up-prefect- Lily-_fucking_-Evans! You look down on your nose at everybody like they're not as good as you!"

"How the hell did you work that one out? How can I possibly be like that when I'm a bloody Mudblood?" she snarled.

The Marauders all flinched at the way Lily freely insulted herself; it was almost like she'd gotten to terms with the awful name and accepted it long ago. James wanted to do something to comfort her, but was scared that he'd make the situation even worse than it already was.

"Oh, there you go off again! Feeling sorry for yourself! 'Oh! I hate my life! They only guy who's ever shown interest in me is the one who's only interested in the game! My Sister thinks I'm a freak and my family favour her over me! So much that I've been kicked out all summer so that they don't have to look at my pathetic face!' And who would blame them? At least they got one normal daughter, right?" Carla retaliated.

Lily moved backwards a step in shock, looking like she'd just been slapped. Her eyes begin to tear up and her shoulders droop.

Carla realises what she's just said and suddenly looks horrified with herself. "Oh my Merlin! Lily, I…"

But Lily hadn't heard her. She ran away from them all as fast as she could, sobbing, trying to hide her face in her hands.

But before Mel and Carla had the chance to follow her, James quickly stopped them.

"You stay here. I'll go. If she's _that_ angry, I'm more used to getting hexed than you two are," he ordered before sprinting off in the direction Lily had disappeared.

_Oh Merlin, I hope she's O__K._ He thought as he sprinted in search of her tell-tale red hair over the crowds. _She has to be…_

**Ok, well…thoughts? Please, please, please review! I'd really like to get it up to ****at least ten reviews by the 14****th**** January. That's two weeks for three people to review! Come on! Pleeeease! Big hugs to the people who do!**** Oh and Happy New Year!**

**I was thinking about changing the summary to this story, but I'm not sure…do you guys have any ideas, or do you think it's fine as it is? Help would be severely appreciated! :D **

**If you have any questions don't hesitate to go and PM them over to me :)**

**Xxx**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello again, I'm back with another update, hopefully you didn't think I took too long to post…I really hate it when authors take ages to put up the next chapter…but anyway, moving on. I was so happy with the response I got from the last chapter! I asked for three reviews and I got ten! To some of you that may not seem to be too much of a big deal, but I was so happy! So thank you if you reviewed, favourited, subscribed e.c.t. it means a lot to me to see that people out there are actually reading and enjoying my work :) **

**Right, so back to this the chapter. I quite like this one, I had fun writing it. There isn't very much talk between the girls, most of it is looking at Lily and James. I hope that's not a bad thing…uh-oh… I'm nervous now! **

**Annnnd I only just realised last night that I never leave a Disclaimer on any of my stories (Whoopsies…). But if you hadn't already noticed that I can't possibly be the great JKR, I think you need you head testing for wrackspurt activity in the space between your ears where your brain should be…**

**OK…well enjoy the chapter!**

Thanks to Lily's head start and knack of being able to stay hidden when she didn't want to be found, it took James a couple of minutes to finally find her.

She was standing, still as a statue, staring into one of the shop windows, not really seeing what was in front of her. _I know she hates me… but it still hurts to think that my older Sister despises my very existence_… were the thoughts running through her head. _Why did things have to go so wrong?_

"Lily!" James called in relief, jogging over to her. The airport was so big that she could have gone anywhere, but thankfully she hadn't run too far.

She abruptly whirled around to face him. Her face was tearstained and her green eyes were bloodshot, somehow making them seem brighter. There was a hopeless expression spread across her beautiful features that looked strongly out of place.

She had yelled, snapped and snarled viciously at him. He had seen her laughing with her friends and smiling happily, but he had never seen her cry before. She was always very careful not to let her hard mask slip, it allowed her to seem vulnerable, and that was simply not an option for her.

"What, James?" she demanded, trying to be her normal tough self, but failed miserably, only managing to allow another few tears cascade silently down her cheeks, before she caught them quickly, refusing to let them fall.

"Are you alright?" he asked carefully, before mentally kicking himself. _Of course she's not OK you idiot!_

"Yes, fine!" she squeaked, attempting to laugh.

"You're not, Lily, I know you're not. I haven't stalked you for the last few years and picked up nothing," James said, in hope that'd it'd lighten up the tense atmosphere.

Lily giggled quietly and wiped the stray tears, angrily, off of her face with her jumper sleeve. "Tuney hates me," she whimpered quietly.

"Is 'Tuney', your Sister?" he wondered gently.

"Yes," she sniffled, "She calls me a freak because I'm a witch." _Why on earth am I telling him this? This is __**Potter**__! They guy who has single-handedly managed to make your school __lif__e living hell!_

"That's horrible! You're not a freak!" he protested, disgusted that somebody as lovely and amazing as Lily could not only be rejected in wizard prejudiced pure-blood society, but by her own Sister too. How did she manage to cope? How did she manage to put all of her problems on hold to help the terrified first years why they get homesick because of being away from their families for so long in the year? How did she manage to pretend that everything was OK in her life, not clueing anybody in on the harshness of her own situation? Lily Evans was an exceptional witch, and she deserved a lot more credit for all of the effort that she put into everything she did than she got already; James suddenly wished more than anything she got given the title of Head girl next year. Nobody was more worthy of that position than her.

"She's hated me since I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter," Lily explained sadly, "She was jealous because she couldn't do magic like me. So when she refused to accept that she envied me, she turned to insulting me instead; all because I'm different to her."

"You are not a freak, Lily. Don't pay any attention to her," James ordered, starting to get angry. _What kind of person is horrible to their younger Sister, calling her names, through jealousy?_

"She's my Sister! And she's banned me from having anything to do with her wedding! I'm not even allowed to be there!" she sobbed, a few more fresh tears rolling down her face, only this time she left them, obviously sensing defeat.

"It's alright. She's not worth hurting over," he assured, lifting a hand forwards to pat her arm, before quickly snapping it back, so not to give her the chance to get angry or push him away.

When Lily saw him retract his hand, she made up her mind and stepped forwards, effectively burying herself in his warm chest, letting out an inaudible sigh of comfort. _I don't like him! Of course I don't! But can I help the fact that I need a hug and he's there to give me one? Damn, this feels nice!_

James's eyes widened in surprise at her sudden movement, before he got hold on himself and put his Quidditch-toned arms around her shaking frame.

"She's sorry you know," James told her after a few seconds of comfortable silence, running his hands gently through her hair, soothing her.

"Who?" Lily replied, her voice all muffled due to the fact that she was half hidden in James's embrace. Not that either of them minded though.

"Carla. You should have seen her face when she realised what she'd said."

"Yeah, I know. Carls' and me are always arguing and screaming at each other. We both have such quick tempers it's bound to happen. Last year it got so bad that Mel was forced to put a silencing charm on our dorm so that we didn't keep the whole of Gryffindor tower awake at night. I don't usually end up crying though. I'm sorry, I guess I'm just overtired," she admitted, lifting her head up slightly to look at James.

He smelt absolutely amazing, like a perfect mix of honey, freshly mown grass and pine trees. It was completely intoxicating- in the best possible way. But Lily couldn't shake the feeling that she'd smelt the same scent before somewhere. But after a few more seconds, she reluctantly stepped away from him, smiling shyly.

"Are you ready to go back?" he asked cautiously, trying to shake off the tingling feeling that her presence had left behind on his body. Every nerve seemed like it was on fire and it was taking a lot of restraint so not to grab her, push her up against the shop window and snog her senseless.

"Yeah," Lily agreed. "Oh Merlin, I shouldn't have reacted like that," she said beginning to walk back towards where they'd left the others.

"Don't worry, its fine. You were upset. We get it," James promised her.

She smiled gratefully up at him as they turned the corner and almost bumped straight into Sirius, who seemed to have been pacing up and down for a while, muttering things that made no sense to anybody but himself, and sending Remus half-mad.

"Oh, Lilyflower!" Sirius cried. "Are you OK? Are you hurt? Oh, sweetie! Don't ever give me such a scare ever again! You gave us all such a fright! I've been frantic with worry! Frantic, I tell you!" He pulled her into a back-breaking hug before yanking her back by her shoulders and checking over her face and hair, then dragging her back into a fierce hug and petting her hair protectively in a very – strangely accurate – motherly fashion.

"OK, Padfoot. Don't scare the nice lady. She's probably not used to your strange personality," Remus sighed at his friend; but Sirius didn't listen at all and carried on fussing over Lily.

Mel just looked at Sirius trying to comb Lily's hair with his fingers, whilst cooing paternally, before she just couldn't hold it in any longer. She burst out into hysterical laughter at the redhead's shocked expression.

James joined in laughing when Lily came to her senses and tried to prise Sirius off of her. She was unsuccessful, but it was genuinely hilarious to watch.

After a few seconds of Lily trying to remove Sirius from her, she sighed and leant forwards towards him. For one awful moment, James thought she was going to kiss him. But, thankfully, at the last second she moved to whisper something quietly in his ear, so nobody else could hear what she was saying.

A few seconds later Sirius's eyes went wide before he retracted his arms to look at Lily properly. She nodded solemnly her expression careful, her red curls bouncing delicately.

"Really?" Sirius demanded incredulously.

"Yes," Lily replied simply.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Now, don't be a twat and abuse this information," she ordered firmly.

"Yes ma'am," Sirius grinned stepping away from her, much to her obvious relief.

"Um…Lils?" Carla asks timidly. "I'm soo sorry I said those things. I shouldn't even be thinking that, no mind about yelling it to your face. I was very, very wrong and I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" she finished, looking up at Lily with her big eyes.

"Sure, Carla, just don't ever say anything like that again, OK?" Lily forgave easily, emitting a sigh of relief at one less problem to deal with. She couldn't have spent the whole holiday ignoring Carla when they were sharing a villa.

"Thank you, Lily!" Carla cried, launching herself at her friend to give her a hug.

"You're welcome, Carls. Let's just forget it, yeah?"

"Yes please," she smiled, stepping out of the hug.

Lily then turned to walk back over to the chair she had been occupying earlier, and fell down into it, and as if by example, the others all followed and sat around in that area.

Lily and Remus both pulled out books, James turned to watch Lily and Mel did the same to Remus, although she was a lot more subtle about it. Sirius and Carla just sat there fidgeting.

A few seconds passed before they heard the inevitable, "Lily, I'm bored!" and "Moony, I'm bored!" Once they'd realised what that they'd said practically the same things at the exact same time, they turned and stared at each other.

"And what exactly do you expect me to about it?" Remus and Lily both replied from behind their books.

"That's kind of creepy," James and Mel pointed out.

"You can talk!" Sirius and Carla exclaimed.

Lily and Remus both sighed in exasperation, closing their books after folding the page they'd been reading and giving their friends – identical – disapproving looks.

Sirius, James, Carla and Mel glanced at each other before suddenly bursting out laughing – perfectly in sync.

Lily merely rolled her eyes and pulled her IPod out of her handbag, which caught James's attention right away.

"What's that?" he asked curiously.

"It's a Muggle music playing devise," she explained as simply as possible.

"Wait…so there are _real life_ people inside _there_? They must be really tiny!" James says in astonishment. "Isn't it a bit cruel to trap people inside there though?"

"James, there aren't people inside there. Some people have…recorded themselves performing, and it is transferred onto here," she tried again, crossing her fingers that he'd get the idea so that she wouldn't have to go into finer specifics on how it worked, because, honestly, she didn't know that much about the physics of it herself. It played music and that was all she needed – and wanted – to know.

"Wow! So where does the music come out of?" he pressed again, scooting his chair closer to hers to get a better look at the mysterious music-playing object in her hand.

"Out of these," Lily answered, showing him the white buds. "They're called headphones; you put them in your ears. They stop anybody but you hearing the music."

"That's amazing!" James exclaimed in awe.

"Do you want a go?" Lily suggested, taking in his child-like wonder towards an object that – to her – was something completely normal.

"Yes, please!" he grinned enthusiastically.

Lily passed him the IPod, watched him messing about with the headphones, trying to figure out how best to wedge them in, before carefully putting them in for him. She lifted the IPod out of his hands and pressed the play button.

James's reaction was very funny. As soon as the music started blasting out into his ears, he jumped about a foot in the air in surprise, his mouth gaping wide open in honest shock.

"THIS IS SOO COOL!" he practically shouted, gaining himself a few strange looks from the surrounding people.

Lily laughed at him and turned the volume down a bit so that he could hear her properly.

"You don't need to shout, we can hear you perfectly fine," she told him, smiling.

He beamed charmingly and took the IPod off of her and managed to fathom out how to turn the volume back up.

Lily smiled to herself and went back to reading her book. She was less likely to het pestered now that James was busy with something to do other than to stare at her.

Mel had sat down in the seat next to Carla, opposite Remus; she had the diary that she'd bought specially for the summer holidays, out on her knee. Lily was sure that she had plenty to write about, because is the sudden arrival of the Marauders.

Sirius was fast asleep – and snoring rather loudly – with his head lolled back against the wall behind him, his mouth dropped open.

But Carla seemed just as fidgety as before.

Lily finally snapped when her friend started clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. She turned to give her a meaningful look.

"What?" Carla demanded defensively.

"Find something to do," Lily ordered.

"I haven't got anything to do!" she whined.

Lily groaned before pulling a bulging, heavy-looking folder from her bag, and passed it to her friend.

Carla gasped excitedly at the sight of it and took the faded, lime green collection of various pieces of parchment out of Lily's outstretched hands, "Are you sure?"

"Sure, why not. Just…please sit quietly," she sighed.

"Of course! Thanks Lils!"

Sitting back in her chair, Lily watched Carla's face light up as she began to read. Lily had been writing her own romance novel for about the last three years. But she had refused to allow anybody to read it until she was sure that it was close to perfect as she could get. It wasn't yet, but some constructive criticism would be very useful; and if it kept Carla quiet, it was worth it.

And then finally it was momentarily silent in their area.

Sighing contentedly, Lily re-opened her book and carried on from where she left off. She tried desperately not to let her thought wander towards a messy black-haired boy that was situated to the right of her, and the feeling of how his lips had brushed against her own that morning several days ago. How his hand had rested firmly on her waist through her robes, his fingers running – gently – through her hair and the way that she felt recently when she was near him. But as you can probably guess, even trying was worth a failed attempt…

James flicked through Lily's IPod, learning more still about her, what kind of music she was into, what got listened to the most on her playlist, and he had even found some pictures hidden onto it. There were ones of – what James presumed to be – her family, friends and moments at Hogwarts. It was clear that each of those pictures meant something special to her, and he was determined to use this summer to prove that he wasn't as arrogant and obnoxious as she though he was…

Remus managed to win the raging battle going on inside his head, and kept his eyes firmly on the page of his book, and didn't look up to watch the stunningly-beautiful brunette girl sat opposite him. He was a monster, she deserved better than him. He couldn't give her everything she deserved and more, and that hurt so much it was unbearable. Not being able to express how you felt to someone you truly cared about was nothing short of antagonizing…

Mel wrote furiously in her diary, telling it everything that she would never say out loud. How she truly felt about the boy sitting across from her, her excitement for the upcoming trip and the hope that the girls would be seeing a lot more of the three handsome Marauders than initially thought. Whilst secretly wishing that _he_ could just open his eyes a little bit more, and see that she was falling for him, too quickly to be called healthy…

Carla eagerly drank in the secret talent of one of her best friends, savouring every sentence of Lily's brilliant writing skills. Carla had finally found a book that wasn't dull enough to put her to sleep, and that in itself was a miracle and the highest of compliments for the author. But subconsciously an experience a few weeks back played – as if on repeat – through her mind. She hadn't been drunk – of course not! Lily would have killed her! But then why did she act the way she did? And why did those smouldering grey eyes manage to turn her into an emotional wreck with just one casual glance…?

And Sirius, well…Sirius dreamed about good-quality hair products, old slippers that as a dog he could just sink his teeth right into, food (especially Mrs Potter's goodbye feast last night…damn that treacle tart…), Snivellus with clean hair and a certain night in a broom cupboard with a drop-dead gorgeous blonde witch, and the fact that he might not have been soo drunk as he made out to have been at the time…

_**Me**_**-Merlin, what am I going to do with Sirius *shakes head in denial*.**

_**Sirius**_**- Give me a cuddle?**

_**Me**_**-Nope.**

_**Sirius**_**-Meanie!**

_**Me**_**-I am not!**

_**Sirius**_**-Are too!**

_**Me**_**-Not!**

_**Sirius**_**-Too!**

_**Me**_**- FINE! I'll give you a cuddle for Merlin's sake!**

_**Sirius**_**-YAY! **

_***Sirius dives on me and I squeal***_

_**James**_**- WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?**

_**Sirius**_**- Nothing Jamiepoo!**

_**Me**_**-James! He's squishing me!**

_**James**_**- Sirius Orion Black! Get away from my girlfriend right now!**

_**Sirius**_**- You're no fun****.**** *grumbles and releases me* Happy?**

_**James**_**- ****Very. *kisses me***

_**Sirius**_**-...Ok, I'm gonna go find some food…or maybe I can find Carla on the way to the kitchens…*walks off* **

_**Me**_**-*detaching myself**** from James* OK, then…well…I uh…what was I going to say? Um…OH YEAH! Tell me what you think about the ****chapter!**** What was bad? What was good? (**_**James**_**-ME!) What needs to me i****mproved****?**** (**_**Sirius**_**-JAMES****!**_**James**_**-HEY!)**** Let me know your opinions!**

**But anyways, REVIEW pleeease! I'm going to try and update in another two weeks. That should give me enough time. But I'd really like to see if we could get the review count up to… 25. I think 14 days for eight reviews should be fine, right? OK, well…GO REVIEW! And if you do review, I'll ask SIRIUS to give you a BIG HUG! See that's how great I truly am! Come on! Think about it, a few measly words for a hug from SIRUS BLACK! I know what I'd be doing right about now if I were you! So stop reading my gibberish and drop a line for me! **

**But WAIT, before you go I have a question… How do you guys react to being on an aeroplane? Are you completely fine and calm, do you throw up or panic…? I personally feel a bit sick as we rise, but then I just fall asleep as soon as we're in the air. But my mum hates it and she practically hyperventilates! What about you?**

**Xxxx**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hiya again everyone! Here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it :)**

**Yet again, big hugs from me AND Sirius for the amount of reviews I got for the last chapter! It really does make me happy to get feedback from you all! **

**Disclaimer- I do not own HP or the Marauders****, ****no matter how much I wish I did…But I do own Carla and Mel! (**_**Carla & Mel**_** – YAY!) And the storyline is completely my own, diddum…**** (S****ee! I remembered ****to put this in ****this time! Are you proud?) **

**But then, without further ado…here is chapter 5! **

A little while later and it was still quiet around the group. The only sounds were Lily and Remus's book pages being turned, the IPod playing and Sirius's snores.

Mel seemed to have finished writing in her journal, and she was off in her own little dream world, staring blankly off into space. Unfortunately this was probably why she didn't even notice Carla carefully prise the notebook out of her slack hands.

After a few minutes, Carla started giggling at what she was reading, and the fact that she was reading willingly was enough to raise suspicion.

Lily looked up warily at the noise and saw Carla eagerly drinking in what she was reading out of Mel's diary. Sighing, she nudged Mel gently, getting her full attention and successfully waking her from her little daydream, before signalling to their friend with a jerk of her head.

Mel looked confused at first, but then turned to look at Carla properly. Her eyes widened in horror and then almost instantly they turned into dangerous looking slits.

"Give that to me," she said monotonously, almost as if she couldn't really care less. But Lily and Carla knew that this was the way that Mel dealt with anger that she was too furious to yell about.

"Make me," Carla grinned challengingly, raising an eyebrow. This was a big mistake.

Mel growled before launching herself out of her chair and wrestled Carla to the floor; both of them yelling and screaming at the top of their voices.

Muggles turned to watch; some with disgusted, disapproving faces (especially families with younger children. The Mothers gave them looks of utter loathing and hatred for being such bad influences on their kids), and others with excitement and encouragement (boys will be boys).

Remus lowered his book and turned to Lily, an alarmed expression on his face when he saw what was happening between the two girls. But she just sat there shaking her head in a calm – yet agitated – sort of way.

"Shouldn't we intervene?" he asked, worriedly as Mel managed to grab hold of a handful of Carla's hair and pulled fiercely.

"No, just let them fight it off between themselves," Lily replied steadily, her face holding nothing more than mild irritation at the noise the pair were making, therefore the attention they were attracting from the people passing by.

"But they look like they could end up killing one another!" he protested desperately. He didn't want Mel getting hurt – or Carla, of course!

"They're no worse that some of the Marauder brawls that I've unfortunately been witness to. Well, at least you now know what it's like from my perspective when James and Sirius are at each other's throats," she pointed out.

"They're – we're – not this bad!" he insisted.

"Yes you are. The only difference is that there is generally more high pitched squealing when it's these two… well, actually that's not strictly speaking true. Sirius makes quite an interesting sound when James goes for his hair."

"But –"

"Just let then have chance to calm down. They'll be fine."

Sometime within the next few seconds Mel managed to elbow and wake a previously still-sleeping Sirius in the stomach. He jumped out of his chair into a standing position in alarm. He barely even had the chance to ask what was going on, before he tripped over the pair of hysterically fighting girls.

James took this moment to take out the headphones and look, wide-eyed, at the sight in front of him. He turned to Lily and Remus quizzically.

"Care to explain?" he prompted.

"Carla stole and then read Mel's diary," Lily said, believing that was all of the information he should need to understand the situation.

"So?" James pondered confusedly. What was so bad about reading a diary?

"What do you mean 'so?'" she demanded.

"It's just a diary," he replied looking bewildered, he wasn't even going to pretend to understand the way that the female brain worked.

"_Just_ a diary? They're very private, and – chances are – they contain lots of the writer's deepest secrets. It is how girls release pent up emotions and feelings. To a normal teenage girl, her diary is her friend, somebody who listens without complaining and who won't judge you no matter what you say," Lily tried to explain. How could you explain the symbolism behind an object that just seemed second nature to people like Mel?

"You don't keep one, do you?" James replied after a second, wearing an amused expression.

"Of course I don't! It's a waste of bloody time and good ink, if you ask me," she said pointedly, rolling her eyes.

"That's what I thought," he grinned triumphantly.

"Why?" she enquired curiously. "How did you guess that?"

"Easy. You always take all of your 'pent up emotions and feelings' and use them to yell at me. If – judging by what you just said – you kept a diary you wouldn't feel the constant need to scream at me as often. That, and if you had one, I would have found out and stolen it by now."

"Oh," Lily said slowly, taking the fact that he may be right. _Maybe I should start to keep a diary, just to try and keep my emotions in check__..__?_

"So, why don't you keep a diary, Lily?" he wondered.

"I already told you, I don't ever have the time, and I don't see the point in writing down my secrets where they could be very easily accessed, stolen, read and passed around the school by the next morning," she said with a very clear, obvious, pointed look at James.

He grinned sheepishly, "Fair point."

"Carla, give me my journal!"

"No! Get off of my hair!"

"Ahhh! Can I get up now?"

All of the yelling made Lily and James finally look back at their three friends, who were still on the floor.

The two girls were both – seemingly – climbing over Sirius and trying to hit each other. And Sirius was laying on his front, sandwiched to the floor. Every time he tried to scramble to his feet, either Carla or Mel would end up smacking him the face by accident, and he'd be sent sprawling. In the end he'd just resulted to lying still, with his hands trying to protect his hair. There was no point in wriggling; he wasn't going to be able to escape any time soon.

Sighing, Lily reached over and took the small book out of reach from both of them and stashed it safely in her handbag.

"Lily!" they both whined in unison, looking like small children.

"Mel, you'll get it back on the plane if you behave," she replied forcefully, showing the fact that she had the authority over the two of her friends.

"But that's not fair!" the girl in question, complained.

"Do you want it back at all?" Lily challenged.

"Yes! Eurgh, Merlin, I hate you, Carla!" Mel glared.

Carla just smirked, stood up, smoothened out her clothing and hair, and say calmly back down in her chair; Mel did the same.

Everyone sat in an uncomfortable silence before Carla turned to Lily, guilt playing across the whole of her face.

"I'm sorry, Lils," she apologised.

"OK," Lily sighed tiredly.

Sirius started laughing loudly from his place on the floor.

"What?" Carla snapped, glaring at him.

"It's just, you looked so scared of Lily then!" he choked out between guffaws.

"You would be scared! Once Lily's in a bad mood with you, you're in trouble. Just ask James if you don't believe me. Lily has quite a temper!" she replied defensively.

"That's true," James said in agreement.

"Hey!" Lily exclaimed, scandalised, giving James a firm whack on the back of his head.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to offend you! I just mean that you have a short temper!" he explained. This earned him another smack. "I'm sorry, Lily! Please don't hit me! I have a life to live!"

"Fine, OK," she said casually.

"Thank you beautiful-gorgeous-caring-sweet Lilyflower!" he grinned, hugging her fiercely.

"Whipped," muttered Sirius.

"Shut up, Padfoot," James growled, still squeezing Lily tightly against him, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair.

"Er, James?" Lily asked.

"Yes?" he replied, smiling internally at the use of his first name.

"I can't breathe…"

"Oh!" he released her quickly, looking at her nervously. "Sorry."

"It's OK," she shrugged, smiling carefully, causing James to beam back at her enthusiastically.

"Whipped," Sirius said again, sitting back in his chair next to Carla.

Remus threw his book at Sirius head, and much to his delight, it was right on target.

"Remus! It's not like you to do something like that! It wasn't a very nice thing to do!" Mel said with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, Mel," Remus murmured, looking down embarrassed.

"Whip –" Sirius started before Carla grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and snogged him full on the mouth.

Lily and Mel just laughed and rolled their eyes at their friends antics, whilst James and Remus looked lost for words.

After about thirty seconds, Carla pulled away and huffed. "_Thank_ you. Now be _quiet_!" she demanded, sitting back in her chair and picking Lily's novel draft up again, as if she'd done nothing more than glared at him.

Sirius gaped open mouthed at Carla; a look that his friends were also supporting, but obviously without the messed up hair and swollen lips.

"What?" Carla asked, looking up after sensing the pairs of eyes on her. "Close your mouths or you'll catch flies," she added before going back to the paragraph she'd been reading moments before.

James turned to Lily and was surprised to see her smiling, her eyes lit up in amusement.

"What was _that_?" he whispered to her.

"Oh, well, snogging boy's is Carla's favourite way to get them to shut up. So if she suddenly kisses you for no apparent reason, after you've been talking for a particularly long time, or been saying something annoying, chances are you should take it as a cue to shut up. And, anyway, look at Sirius now. Can you hear him talking?" she asked.

"No, because he currently looks paralysed with shock," he said logically.

"Exactly, that's how – and why – it works so well."

"That's sneaky! Although, if you every want me to shut up, don't hesitate to take a leaf out of her book," he winked roguishly.

Lily just rolled her eyes at him and returned to her book.

"I don't get the mechanics of the female brain," Remus said weakly, in a shaky sort of voice.

"Me neither, Moony. But that doesn't mean that some of their mannerisms can be pretty cool!" James replied.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you had to spend all day, every day for weeks, with a bunch of us," Mel laughed.

"Oh, I think we'd manage," he responded confidentially.

"Speak for yourself, Prongs! Spending hours upon hours with you and Padfoot is enough to send me mad! Forget how bad it would be to add three crazy girls into the picture!"

"Oi!" Mel and James both exclaimed.

Remus just smirked and went to go collect his book off of the floor next to Sirius from where it'd fallen after it'd struck him. Once he'd sat down again, Mel stood up and perched herself in his lap.

"What are you reading?" she asked curiously, quite surprised by the forwardness of her own actions.

"Um…It's a Muggle book about a spy," Remus answered, in a sort of trance. _Maybe this means that she's not mad at me about that incident at the party! Maybe – by some kind of miracle – I didn't ruin everything after all!_Inspired by this revolution, he gently put on of his arms around Mel's waist to make sure she wasn't going to fall off; making her smile at him timidly.

James smiled at Remus and how happy and content he suddenly looked with the brunette girl sat on his knee. This was just the sort of thing that the shy werewolf needed. It would be great if he learnt to trust a few more people as much as he did the Marauders. You can never have enough friends. And – by the look of things – by the end of the summer, he was going to be much more than friends with Mel.

Then James turned his attention to his other friend – who was still sitting stiff as a board in a way that might suggest that he'd been petrified.

"Hey, Pads?" he called, with a sly grin on his face as an idea suddenly struck him.

"Yeah?" Sirius managed to reply faintly.

"Whipped!"

_**Me**_**- Well, I'm afraid to say that you fully deserved that, Sirius.**

_**Sirius**_**- ****What!**** Why? **

_**James**_**- Because you're a git!**

_**Sirius**_**- Oi!**

_**Remus**_**- Wait, I think you'll find that that's **_**you**_**, James.**

_**Sirius**_**- *L****aughing* Ooh burrrrn!**

_**James**_**- Megan, they're bullying me! **

_**Me**_**- I know, sweetie. Oi, Black!**

_**Sirius**_**- Yeeees? **

_**Me**_**- Leave James alone or I'll make the next chapter hell for you!**

_**Sirius**_**- *L****ooks scared* OK! I'm sorry Prongsie-pie! Will you forgive me?**

_**James**_**- No.**

_**Sirius**_**- Awwww! Pleease?**

_**James**_**- No.**

_**Sirius**_** -Megaaaaan! He won't accept my apology!**

_**Me**_** - *Mutters under breath* **_**boys**_**…**

_**James & Sirius**_** - Hey!**

**Well, as I said before, I was super happy about the response from the last chapter! AND I think you'll be happy to see that I managed to update before my deadline! Aren't you all proud of me? Well, actually there's a reason for this. I am crazily busy this upcoming week, so I honestly don't think I'd' ve had time to update then. So instead of skipping am update, I've given it to you early! Now, show me the love and REVIEW!**

**But anyway, can we see if we can reach 40 reviews by the update which will be in about a fortnight-ish time? Vague, I know, but you get the idea. You can do that, right? Please? I'd love you all forever! And you know what? If you review, you get hugs from Sirius AND Remus! Am I awesome or what? **

**Right, question time: 'Who do you think would react better on a plane; Mel or Carla?' I am giving you guy's complete free reign on this choice! It is totally your decision. How would they both behave? Let me know what you think ;)**

**Love Me****gan Xxx**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello! **

**Yeah, I know it's late and I apologise. I was in a pantomime and the shows have been the last few weeks and it's just been insanely busy. I mean, I had to spend a lot of time on my school work so that I didn't fall behind and…Okay, I'm not gonna give you any more excuses, but just know that I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? Please?**

**More hugs from Sirius, Remus and me to the amazing people who reviewed! I love you all :) You guys are my inspiration and motivation, so please keep giving me the feedback, it's severely appreciated! **

**Disclaimer- I do not own HP (especially since he's not even born yet) or the Marauders and Lily. None of it is mine other than Carla and Mel, also the plot has come straight from the weirdness that is my brain! **

**Okay, now that that's over…I present to you, chapter 6!**

A few hours later, and the six teenagers were all seated on the plane; the girls in coach and the boys in first class.

Lily, Carla and Mel were perfectly happy where they were. They were all sat talking and laughing excitedly about the upcoming holiday, at least they were until Mel started gushing on and on about how amazing Remus was.

Almost instantly, Carla got very bored of this and tuned her attention elsewhere. This left Lily to listen to Mel's ramblings alone.

She tried to pay as much attention as she could, but even Lily could only listen to how Remus's hair was just the most perfect shade of blonde, for so long before wanting to pull _her own_ hair out!

But eventually, somehow she managed to get the conversation back on track by mentioning the villa and possible activities once they arrived in America.

James, Sirius and Remus, however, were not so happy about their current positions. Being stuck up in first class where the seats were too squishy to be completely comfortable, the atmosphere was far from lively and friendly and one of the stewardess's seemed to have taken quite a shine to Sirius, much to his annoyance.

The plane hadn't even left the airport yet and the boys already couldn't wait to get off.

"Merlin, Prongs!" Sirius complained as soon as the 'bloody woman' – or so he had christened her – finally left from checking on them for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes. "Why couldn't we have gone in coach, like the girls did? Now I'm gonna be stuck with _her_ breathing down my neck for the next eight hours!"

"It's not my fault! I wanted to go in coach, but my parents insisted that we go in first class! So don't blame me! You know just as well as the next person how much I'd rather be down in coach with Lily, but there's nothing we can do about it!" James announced, tiredly.

"Hmph," Sirius replied throwing his head back against the headrest, which only managed to fuel his irritation, due to lack of the regular stratifying thud that would have been made if he'd been sitting in a normal seat.

"Stop your complaining, Padfoot. You'll see Carla again soon enough," Remus said calmly, closing his eyes and trying his best to relax.

"Yeah, I know, but—WAIT! What makes you think that I like Carla?" Sirius exclaimed in alarm, snapping his head back up again, his line of vision whipping between James and Remus who were sat on either side of him.

"Pads, give it up, you completely blanked out when she kissed you! Normally you would have either snogged her right back or made up some kind of chat-up line on the spot. But as soon as she kissed you, you seemed to go into shock," James laughed, remembering his best mate's facial expression when Carla had just calmly moved away from him and continued reading! It had been priceless!

"Yeah, well I…um…Dammit, James!" Sirius cried, noticing that there was no possible way for him to wriggle his way out of this one.

"Just admit that you like her," James persisted.

"You guys are soo mean to me!"

"Admit that you like her!"

"What is this? Pick on Sirius day?"

"Just admit it!"

"Fine! Ok, yes, I like her. Are you happy now?" he finally confessed, his head dropping down unto his hands.

"Very," James grinned back at him, wearing a very smug expression.

"It's good to see that you finally seem to be maturing, Padfoot," Remus said passively.

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"_NOOOOOOOOO!"_

"What one earth was that?" Mel asked alarmed as the shriek brought the group out of the conversation that they'd been having about cooking duties in the villa (Lily had been elected as head chef).

"It sounded like an injured dog," Carla mused, looking around for any kind of sign of disruption.

"Oh, I do hope that they aren't mistreating any animals!" Mel cried.

"I doubt they are carrying any live cargo on this particular flight," Lily assured. "It actually sounded like it came from the first class compartment…"

"What—in the name of Merlin – makes that kind of noise? Especially considering that all of the people in first class are supposed to be quite refined," Carla said in confusion, twisting around in her seat to look in that general direction.

"Well, the Marauders are up there, and they're definitely not refined!" Lily laughed, shaking her head, remembering the 'interesting' time that they'd spent in the airport waiting area.

Didn't those boys know when too much was too much and when they needed to stop?

_Of cour__se they don't! _She thought fondly. _And that's why they're so nice—Hold up! 'Nice'? When have they ever been 'nice'? These are the boys who made your life hell from day one at Hogwarts! But I do guess that they have changed and become relatively sweet guys__…Oh, Merlin, help me…_

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"NOOOOOOOOO! No, no, no, no, no, no!"

"Padfoot, you're going to need to calm down!" James tried to soothe his best mate, but the only response he got was that Sirius's hands reached up to his hair and he began to yank at his prized locks.

"No, no, no, no! I will not mature, I won't!" he screamed, close to hyperventilation, puling harder on his hair. You knew things were bad when Sirius Black was messing up his hair.

"Padfoot, someday you'll mature. You'll get a job, meet a nice girl, marry her, and have children—" Remus started but he was interrupted by another hysterical yelling fit.

"GET A JOB! GET MARRIED? _HAVE CHILDREN_? No, no, no, I won't! You can't make me, Moony!"

"Pads! Take a deep breath; ignore Moony and his stupid theories! You don't have to marry and have children if you don't want to!"

"But, Prongs, I can't mature! I have spent years mastering immaturity, and to let it all go down the drain now…think of all of the wasted time pranking the teachers, pranking the first years, pranking the second years, pranking the third years, pranking everybody! And then also pranking the Slytherin's—OH MERLIN! If I mature I won't do that anymore! What sort of monster have I become?"

"PADFOOT! Just shut up!" Remus snapped, finally having enough of Sirius's hysteria. "If it's what you want, you can continue being a playboy prankster! You don't have to mature!"

"Really?" he asked, turning to look at Remus, eyes wide.

"Yes! Merlin, I knew not bringing calming draughts with me was a bad idea…" the poor werewolf muttered to himself. All of Sirius's yelling had hurt his sensitive hearing that he had thanks to his lycanthropy.

Sirius shrunk back into his seat and let out a loud sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin for that!"

"Is everything alright over here?" questioned a sugary sweet voice from next to them.

Sirius whimpered almost mutely and clamped his eyes tightly shut.

"Everything's fine," James replied coolly, in an almost monotone voice.

"Are you sure? Is your friend okay, I thought I heard shouting," the stewardess replied, batting her eyelashes in Sirius's direction, even though his eyes were very obviously closed and unable to see her.

"He's fine, but a little tired. He's going to sleep for the rest of the journey, so there's no need to check on him every thirty seconds. I promise you that if he needs his pillow fluffing, we can do it for him, thanks so much," James told her coldly in a way that wasn't open to negotiation.

She recoiled slightly, looking totally bewildered.

"You can leave us to it now," Remus added in a slightly more polite tone than James had used.

The stewardess looked between the three boys; her eyes hovering over Sirius for a bit longer before squaring her shoulders and walking back off, swaying her hips in a very over exaggerated fashion.

"As if!" Sirius snorted, opening his eyes just in time to see her disappear down the aisle. "I have more class that that!"

Remus cleared his throat before re-opening his book, choosing to ignore that particular statement; it was not worth arguing over.

"Um…Paddy? Remember Alisha Yanchs?" James recalled.

"No…" Sirius replied after a seconds worth of trying to put a face to the name.

"Blonde haired Hufflepuff," he tried again.

"Still no."

"Melted chocolate," the messy haired boy finally added with a groan, remembering the mess that their dorm had been in after that particular episode.

"OH! _Her_! Well….I guess you have a point…but anyway, I've moved on now! No more incidents like that with Huffies in a drunken state, Marauder's honour!" he promised.

"Well, I'm sure that that'll last a long time," Remus murmured under his breath.

"I'm hurt Moony! I thought you'd have more belief in me than that!"

"Yeah, but we all know what you're like. You skip from girl to girl weekly; you couldn't stick to one even if your life depended on it."

"Prooooongs! Mooooony's being mean to meeeeee!" Sirius whined to James.

"Moony, don't be mean to Padfoot," James said, giving him a stern look, waggling his finger at a disbelieving Remus.

"I just can't win with you two, can I?" he sighed.

"Nope!" they both replied, beaming angelically.

"Great."

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"Sooo, Carly…What's the deal with you and Sirius?" Mel pried, sitting up straighter in her seat to examine the blonde girl carefully.

"He's hot and a great kisser, what more to it is there?" she answered quickly, a little _too_ quickly.

"Come _on_! You don't honestly expect me to believe that! How long have we known you now? Now tell us the truth!"

"He's a good snogging buddy, that's all," Carla tried to say in – what she probably thought was – a believable way.

"Carls, you're not a very good liar are you?" Lily said, smirking slightly.

"No," the girl in question sighed in defeat.

"So, how do you _really_ feel?"

"Confused," she finally admitted, looking down at her hands in her lap.

"Why?" Mel pried.

"Because I use that technique on lots of boys, and never have I ended up feeling something for the victim by doing it. I've never felt a spark like the one I got when I kissed Sirius before."

"But why are you confused?" Lily asked gently.

"Because it shouldn't be happening and, to be frank, it scares the hell out of me that I might actually _like_ him! I thought I hated him, but now…"

"Well, you wouldn't be the only one experiencing that particular emotion; isn't that right, Lily?" Mel said innocently.

Lily glared at Mel before meeting Carla's gaze and blushing beetroot.

"I don't like him like that," she mumbled, using her long hair as a protective curtain to hide behind.

"Oh, really now? Because you two seemed to be getting on _pretty_ well back there!" Carla grinned, joining in on the interrogation now that she wasn't directly in the firing zone.

"Leave it, OK? We're just friends," Lily declared, still not lifting her head up to look at either of her friends.

"Friends…with benefits, more likely!" Mel giggled and Carla gave her a high-five.

"Shut up! It's not like that!" Lily defended.

"Not from what we've heard about your little session on the last day of school," Carla grinned, grabbing Lily by her shoulders and hoisting her upright so that they could look at her.

"That was different! It didn't mean anything!"

"Suuuure, sweetie. You just keep telling yourself that, whatever helps you sleep at night," Mel said nonchalantly.

"I mean it! It's not going to happen again. James apologised and that's that. We're both going to forget that it ever happened and move on, like responsible people," Lily said firmly, trying to find her place in the novel she'd been reading.

"Oh give over, Lils! Did James actually say that you were going to forget all about it?" Carla demanded, yanking the book out from in between the redhead's fingers.

"Well, he…I don't… I can't remember exactly…"

"Lily…" both of her friends said threateningly.

"OK! Jeez! He didn't say to forget about it exactly, but I'm sure that he would've if he'd remembered to, at the time," she explained quickly, trying to regain possession of her book, but failing as Carla lifted it further away from her.

"That's a load of rubbish and you know it! There is no way that James will want to forget that any time soon! Lils, the guy has been in love with you for years!" Mel protested, rolling her eyes at Lily's obviation to how one of the most sought-after people in Hogwarts felt about her.

"No he hasn't! He doesn't love me! Can we please just drop this now?" Lily begged desperately, in all honestly, the conversation starting to get to her. Love was a big word for someone her age, and the general idea of James Potter being I love with her was preposterous!

"Alright…" Mel sighed reluctantly. "For now, anyway."

"Damn, I wanted a confession of her undying love to the boy…oh well; I guess I can't have everything…" Carla mused, sadly.

"Hey! Stop it and leave me alone! You're just as bad with Sirius!" Lily pointed out, using Carla's momentary stunned disposition to snatch back her book.

"Very true…" Mel mused, an evil glint making itself known in her eyes.

"Oh no…" Lily said, trying to get as far away from Mel as possible. "I don't like that look at all. It means you're thinking of something evil!"

"Um…What was that you were saying about Remus's hair before, Mel?" Carla prompted, before thinking about the consequences of her actions.

"Oh! Well it's just soo soft and the most brilliant shade of blonde there is…" she started rambling.

"Well done, genius!" Lily hissed under her breath at Carla.

"Sorry! I panicked!" Carla apologised looking at her friend sheepishly.

"It'll take ages to shut her up now!" Lily cried, massaging her temple with her fingertips.

But then a loud booming voice prevented Carla from replying.

"_Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We'd like to welcome you on board this British Airways flight to Orlando International Airport. Flight duration is around eight hours and we are expecting a fairly smooth flight today. Prepare for take-off in approximately five minutes time and once again we thank you for choosing to fly with us! We hope you enjoy your flight!"_

"Oooooh! We're going! We're going!" Carla squealed, jumping up and down in her seat, causing a few surrounding people to turn and look at her strangely.

"America, here we come!" Mel announced, momentarily forgetting about her daydreaming and joining in with Carla's bouncing.

Lily merely sighed at the both of them; she was sandwiched in between a pair of three year olds! She then routed through her handbag and popped a strip of chewing gum into her mouth. At least _she_ would be ready for take-off.

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"I can't believe we're going to America!" Sirius exclaimed, before suddenly letting out a very loud 'whoop' of excitement.

"Shut up, Sirius!" Remus warned. "People already think you're mentally challenged, _without_ the obviously childish antics!"

"Ouch," James chortled, laughing quietly. "He got you there, Padfoot!"

"I don't even care! Because we are going to AMERICA! We're leaving my dratted pure-blooded psychopathic relatives back in ENGLAND, whilst we'll be in AMERICA, with a group of SMOKING HOT GIRLS!" Sirius suddenly exploded, starting to do some kind of crazy happy dance, which involved a lot of arm waving and head-banging.

"Um, Pads? You are aware that you're messing your hair up, right?" Remus checked, trying to hide his smirk behind his book.

"On this particular occasion, I shall allow hair messing-up as a pre ritual of the AWESOME time we're going to have in AMERICA!" he shouted in celebration.

"Alright then!" James exclaimed, reaching over to scuff his best mate's hair, taking advantage of the fact that it would be entertaining to see his reaction.

"PRONGS! I cannot BELIEVE you just did THAT! Only I am allowed to touch my hair! How DARE you?" Sirius hollered, even though James was only sat a few feet away.

"Ouch, Padfoot, sensitive hearing, remember?" Remus moaned pitifully, using his fingers and stuffing them in his ears to brace himself for any future outbursts.

"Sorry, MOONY! I'm just sooooo EXCITED!"

"Really? We hadn't noticed," James said with a grin.

And then the plane started to move forwards. It quickly sped up, getting faster and faster as it made its way down the runway, receiving another loud exclamation from Sirius.

This was about the time that James, Carla and Mel all decided that they _really_ didn't like aeroplanes.

**Right-eo, I'm not going to bore you with an excruciatingly long authors note, but let me just say this…REVIEW NOW! I'd like to get over 50 before I next update, if that's possible. I'm sure you can all manage to leave just a little word in the box below…please? It makes me soo happy to check my emails and to see messages from fanfiction, so – even if you just fancy a chat – PM me! I'm free to answer any questions you may have, so give me your worst! ;) **

**Updates should be back to normal now, every fortnight, if I can. **

**And here's my question for all of you: 'What cars do you guys think that the Marauder and the Girls should have?' For example, should the Marauders have a sports car or a sturdy sort-of truck of some kind? Let me know :) **

**Until the next time!**

**Love Megan Xxx**


	7. Chapter 7

**Oh my god…where do I even begin to tell you how incredibly sorry I am? If anybody is still out there following and reading my stories, I just want to say thank you all for sticking by me and waiting for me to kick my lazy ass into gear and write! I am not very happy with this chapter at all, but I felt that I just had to update **_**something**_**! How long has it even been since my last update? 5 months, or there abouts? Jeez…I am so so so so so so so so so so sorry! :/ I wouldn't even call this a proper chapter, but just know that no matter how long it takes me, I will NEVER just abandon any of my stories even if it takes me years to update (but I really hope that that never happens!). So this is chapter 7, I guess… I hope you like it, even though it's super short by my standards :)**

Things were not going well.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my Go—" James chanted over and over again, looking slightly deranged.

"Prongs! Calm down! Take deep breaths!" Remus desperately tried to reassure his hysterical friend, unsure of what else he could do to help.

"No, no, no, no, no, I can't! I can't do this! I can't! We're going to crash! We're going to die! We're goin—"

Sirius leaned over in his seat and slammed his hand over James's mouth in attempt to try and stifle the word flow.

"What are we going to do? He's not reacting very well," Remus asked, looking apprehensively at the usually calm boy who was clinging desperately to the chair arm, his knuckles white in terror.

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"I don't like this! I don't like it! I don't like it at all!" Carla cried, rocking forwards and backwards in her seat, eyes clamped shut tightly.

"Carly, it's fine. There's nothing to be scared of," Lily tried to soothe.

When there was no reaction or reply from her friend, Lily then turned to Mel in desperation, hoping for some kind of backup.

But Mel was no help at all. She seemed to be in some form of shock. Her usually tanned face was emptied of all colour and her blue eyes were wide open in – what seemed to be – surprise.

Sensing defeat, Lily began to rack her brains for another solution.

Yes, they were two wizard kids who'd never been on a plane before, but then again, Lily had never been on a plane either. Whenever her parents had taken her and her sister on holiday, they had always taken the ferry to France.

Lily hated traveling by boat, mainly because of the surge of sea-sickness that always hit her just minutes of being on the ferry. Going on holiday was no fun if you had the journey to dread each and every time! Just the year before she had been sat in a corner trying to ignore the inevitable nausea that was fighting to hit and a small child ran past her, threw up and then scampered off. Needless to say that that wasn't Lily's most favourite memory of her trip that year.

"Look Carla, nothing bad is going to haPPEN!" Lily was forced to finish the rest of her sentence in a raised voice that was close to a scream as a baby in the seats in front of them began to wail loudly.

"!" it screeched in a way that would rival a Mandrake.

"Lily, I can't do heights," Mel whispered, terrified, trying not to look out of the window, which – conveniently enough – was right next to her.

"What was that, Mel?" Lily asked, Mel's mouth moving being the only indication that she had been talking as she was completely drowned out by the screaming.

"I can't do heights." Mel said back, her voice a little louder than before.

"What?" Lily repeated.

"I CAN'T BLOODY DO FUCKING HEIGHTS!" Mel yelled just as the baby went silent as it's mother gave it a bottle of milk to drink from.

People from all of the surrounding chairs turned to stare at her. Parents with small children glared daggers at the trio before turning to their children who were looking up at them with wide eyes.

"Mummy, what's fucking?" asked a little girl with her brunette hair tied back in bunches, her thumb momentarily removed from her mouth.

"Nothing sweetie, just a very bad word," her mother tried to explain.

A little boy with the same colour hair as his sister gasped and gawped at Mel with wide eyes. "She said a bad word!" he exclaimed tugging at his poor mothers' sleeve.

"But what does it mean?" the girl insisted adamantly.

"It's nothing you need to worry about, sweetheart," the woman smiled forcefully before trying to recapture her kids' attention again away from the vulgar language of today's younger generation.

Lily just sat there, buried her head in her hands, and took a deep, settling breath.

This was going to be a very long journey.

**Right, so…thoughts? Would it honestly be absolutely awful of me to still ask for reviews after all of this time? I am incredibly grateful with the amount I already have from all of you lovely people, but would it be possible for you to be able to reach 65 reviews? Please? Even though I know that I don't deserve it… :(**

**Now it is my turn to grovel. If you have any suggestions or ideas about what you think I should have happen in the next chapter or further on in the story, **_**please**_** PM them to me! Please, I am struggling to write and I could really do with some inspiration from you guys!**

**I am not sure when I'll next update this story, or my others, as I am going through a difficult time at school where I am having to spend every spare second I have on revision for my exams. Which one of my stories do you think I should focus on? Hopefully this way you will get more frequent updates…fingers crossed! **

**Could you maybe check out my newest story 'Best Friends'? I am quite excited about it, even though there is only one chapter up so far. I have sworn that I will not update that one again until I have sorted out this story and my other one 'A LoveHate Relationship' though, and I don't know how long that will take…but it wouldn't hurt to give me feedback :)**

**I hope to speak to some of you soon! PM if you want a chat! I love you guys! Tootles! :) **


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